Currently, many individuals, households, financial institutions, and businesses utilize computing system implemented financial management systems to manage finances and to provide insight into financial activity. Currently, various computing system implemented financial management systems are available including, but not limited to: on-line banking systems; computing system implemented personal and small business financial management systems; computing system implemented tax preparation systems; computing system implemented business accounting systems; and computing system implemented medical expense management systems; as well as various other electronic transaction and data driven, on-line or desktop financial management systems.
Computing system implemented financial management systems typically help users manage their finances by providing a centralized interface with banks, credit card companies, and other various financial institutions, for identifying and categorizing user financial transactions. Currently, computing system implemented financial management systems typically obtain financial transaction information, such as payee, payment amount, date, etc. via communication with banks, credit card providers, or other financial institutions, using electronic data transfer systems such as the Open Financial Exchange (OFX) specification, or various other systems for transferring financial transaction data.
Using on-line banking systems, or other computing system implemented financial management systems, one or more financial transactions are typically displayed in a listing of financial transactions that display the financial transaction information, typically in table format, with each row, or line, corresponding to a given financial transaction. In many cases, the financial transaction information is first obtained and formatted by a bank or other financial institution and displayed to a user via an on-line banking system, or other computing system implemented financial management system, sponsored by the bank or other financial institution. In some cases, the financial transaction information is also used by the on-line banking system, or other computing system implemented financial management system, sponsored by the bank or other financial institution to track events, such as purchase events, and to provide various financial data reports or displays including “to date” historical data reports such as historical spending data reports in particular categories and during defined timeframes. In some cases, the financial transaction information is also used by the on-line banking system, or other computing system implemented financial management system, sponsored by the bank or other financial institution for financial forecasting and/or budgeting.
In some cases, other, third party, computing system implemented financial management systems currently available download the financial information from the on-line banking system and use the financial transaction information to track events, such as purchase events, and to provide various financial data reports or displays including “to date” historical data reports such as historical spending data reports in particular categories and during defined timeframes. In some cases, other, third party, computing system implemented financial management systems currently available download the financial information from the on-line banking system and use the financial transaction information for financial forecasting and/or budgeting.
While electronic funds transfers have rapidly become one of the most common methods for completing financial transactions, at the time of filing, over 50% of all financial transactions in the United States are still conducted/completed using paper checks. This fact represents a significant problem for on-line banking systems and/or other types of computing system implemented financial management systems because it is extremely difficult to obtain computer usable data from a paper check. The problem is difficult enough for printed information on a check, however, it is often the case that the information is filled out in cursive, and/or printed, hand written text. The problem is so difficult that currently available Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems are typically unable to efficiently process data from paper checks and therefore banks and other financial institutions have largely abandoned this approach.
To partially solve this problem, some on-line banking systems and/or other types of computing system implemented financial management systems, currently obtain only check the information associated with payment processing such as check number, payment amount, and date, and then some on-line banking systems and/or other types of computing system implemented financial management systems do include this limited information in transaction listings including the check based financial transaction. While having check number, payment amount, and date, displayed in a transaction listings is better than having no information at all, important information needed by the user to review, categorize, and understand check based financial transactions, such as the payee involved and any memo entries, is currently not obtained from paper checks by banks and other financial institutions due to the difficulties of obtaining this information discussed above. As a result, this often critical information is typically not included and/or presented in any check based transaction listings.
This lack of important check information, such as the payee involved and any memo entries, associated with check based transactions appearing in transaction listings is not only problematic in that the user typically is often very interested in having this information readily available, but the lack of complete information also makes automatic categorization of check based transactions by other computing system implemented financial management systems virtually impossible.
Some currently available on-line banking systems, and/or other types of computing system implemented financial management systems, attempt to resolve this problem by providing scanned in copies of a given check that can be accessed by clicking a link in the transaction listings. However, once the link is clicked, the image of the paper check must be downloaded, typically in a PDF or bitmap format, and this process takes time and typically requires transferring the viewer to another screen display or superimposing the check image over the current screen. This situation typically causes the user to lose a significant amount of time and often the contextual setting of the transaction. This situation is problematic enough when details regarding a single check based transaction are desired, however, it is often the case that details regarding multiple check based transactions are desired. In addition, the provision of a link to download an image of a paper check does nothing to solve the issue of automatic categorization of check based transactions by other computing system implemented financial management systems, i.e., even with access to a paper check image, automatic categorization of check based transactions by other computing system implemented financial management systems is still virtually impossible without significant manual user input.
As a result of the situation discussed above, currently over 50% of all financial transactions, those conducted using paper checks, result in incomplete check information being associated with the check based transactions in transaction listings. This is not only far from ideal for users, but it also prevents automatic categorization of check based transactions by other computing system implemented financial management systems.